The reason inside out backhands are rare is because unless you're standing very wide on the deuce side(righty), you won't be hitting many backhands that land on the deuce side of the court. There aren't many players who run around their forehand to hit a backhand either except for Sugiyama.

Very rare. You need great footwork to get into position. Not only do you need to be fast you get over that far and be out of position in the court you also need to have great footwork to adjust for the shot, it is trickly.

Inside out from the deuce court. Hmm... sounds like exactly the backhand return you want to hit in doubles, eh? And Max was #1 in doubles for a while last year. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a "grooved" return for him - inside out backhand from the deuce court.

Hingis hit this shot very well. I saw her burn Steffi Graf, and Venus Williams early in their meetings, with the shot. It is much tougher to hit than the inside-out forehand though. I have tried hitting both and there is no comparision.

Hingis hit this shot very well. I saw her burn Steffi Graf, and Venus Williams early in their meetings, with the shot. It is much tougher to hit than the inside-out forehand though. I have tried hitting both and there is no comparision.

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The in/out forehand is a piece of cake and is used much more often than the in/out bh. I don't believe you need to use the in/out backhand very often unless you get taken out very wide on the deuce side and the next shot comes up the middle.

Hingis hit this shot very well. I saw her burn Steffi Graf, and Venus Williams early in their meetings, with the shot. It is much tougher to hit than the inside-out forehand though. I have tried hitting both and there is no comparision.

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The in/out forehand is a piece of cake and is used much more often than the in/out bh. I don't believe you need to use the in/out backhand very often unless you get taken out very wide on the deuce side and the next shot comes up the middle.

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Actually, now that I think of it, doubles return of serve on the deuce side would be inside-out backhands most of the time, wouldn't it? For a righty, that is. Assuming the server served down the middle over half of the time, and that the returner would want to hit it back to cross-court and not at the netman.

I do it all the time with my one-hander. It's one of my favorite shots and catches many of my opponents off guard since they don't expect people to hit this shot and have not seen it very often, especially from a one-handed backhand. Yes, sometimes I even run around my forehand to hit this shot!

Oh, pros......Hmmmm... I've seen Federer and Haas use this shot pretty effectively.